G. B. Jones

{{Short description|Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = G. B. Jones

| image =

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| instrument = Vocals, guitar, drums

| genre = Post-punk

| occupation = Musician, artist, filmmaker

| years_active = 1980s–present

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| associated_acts = Fifth Column, Bunny and the Lakers, Opera Arcana

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}}

G. B. Jones is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of zines. She is best known for producing the queer punk zine J.D.s and her Tom Girls drawings.

Career

=Music=

Jones' musical career began as a young child, singing Canadian folk songs in the school choir. Though she didn't have enough money to buy records, her uncle was very involved in the folk music community and exposed her to a musical education that would prove valuable later on.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-30 |title=A Conversation with G.B. Jones: The Foremother of Queercore & Riot Grrrl - A Grrrl's Two Sound Cents |url=https://agrrrlstwosoundcents.com/2022/06/30/a-conversation-with-g-b-jones-the-foremother-of-queercore-riot-grrrl/ |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=agrrrlstwosoundcents.com |language=en-US}} From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Jones performed with the all-woman post-punk band Fifth Column, playing drums, guitar and background vocals, and was one of the co-founders of the group.McDonnell, Evelyn. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d2IEAAAAMBAJ&dq=fifth+column+band+punk+toronto&pg=PA87 Girls + Guitars]. Out Magazine. Vol. 8, No. 10. Published by Here Publishing. April 2000. The band's first album, To Sir With Hate was released in 1985.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995. ECW Press. {{ISBN|978-1-55022-992-9}}. In 2002, Fifth Column's last release, Imbecile, appeared on the Kill Rock Stars compilation album Fields and Streams.{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/various/various-fieldsandstreams.shtml|title=Indie Heaven, Circa 2002|author=Adrien Begrand|date=July 12, 2002|website=Pop Matters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020714145605/https://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/various/various-fieldsandstreams.shtml|archive-date=July 14, 2002|url-status=dead}}

=Artwork and publications=

Jones initially received recognition for her Tom Girls drawings, which were published in the queer punk fanzine J.D.s, founded by Jones and co-published with Bruce LaBruce.{{cite magazine|last1=Block|first1=Adam|title=The Queen of 'Zine|magazine=The Advocate|page=75|date=November 20, 1990}}

== Themes ==

In an interview with Xtra Toronto, Jones shares, "I was interested in certain issues that I don't think many people may have picked up on in the work, ideas about authority figures, power, obviously, and the abuse of power, and gender roles as they pertain to both sexes. I think there's been a tendency to take a very reductivist view of the work as simply erotic and kind of dismiss that there could be any other concerns involved."{{Cite web |title=StackPath |url=https://xtramagazine.com/culture/ms-jones-2-39738 |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=xtramagazine.com|date=27 April 2005 }}

According to Dodie Bellamy, G. B. Jones "co-opts the male-on-male objectifying gaze of gay erotica and converts it to a female-on-female gaze" and herTom Girls series of drawings (based on the work of Tom of Finland) are "unapologetic, thrillingly anti-assimilationist."{{cite journal|url=https://www.frieze.com/article/dodie-bellamy-gb-joness-nasty-female-role-models|title=Dodie Bellamy on G.B. Jones's Nasty Female Role Models|journal=Frieze|author=Dodie Bellamy|author-link=Dodie Bellamy|date=January 9, 2019|issue=200 |access-date=November 28, 2020}} Jones gives her marginalized female characters a place to reclaim their power. By changing the narrative, Jones's drawings allow viewers to compare the effect of women in those positions of authority versus the men.

Queercore

Jones coined the term "homocore" with LaBruce to cater to the social mutants of the underground. It later evolved into "queercore" to be more inclusive.{{Cite news |last=Wilde |first=Christopher |date=May 2006 |title=The Origin of Love |pages=1 |work=Queer Life |url=http://www.holytitclamps.com/QZines-2006-05.pdf |access-date=October 6, 2022}}

Exhibition history

Jones has exhibited her art nationally and internationally since the early 1990s, in spaces such as Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus; Participant Inc., New York; Mercer Union, Toronto; The Power Plant, Toronto; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna; White Columns, New York; AKA Artist Run Space, Winnipeg; Muncher Kunstverein, Munich; and Schwules Museum, Berlin. Her first gallery was Feature Inc. in New York, curated by Hudson, who was the first art dealer to showcase her Tom Girls series of drawings from 1991 to 1999.{{cite web|url=http://www.featureinc.com/exhibs-1991.html |title=Feature Inc. Previous Exhibitions 1991 |work=Feature Inc. |access-date=2014-04-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407080433/http://www.featureinc.com/exhibs-1991.html |archive-date=7 April 2014 |df=dmy }}

Filmography

=Director=

The Troublemakers, directed by G. B. Jones (1990)
The Yo-Yo Gang, directed by G. B. Jones (1992)
The Lollipop Generation, directed by G. B. Jones (2008)
The Dark End of the Street, directed by G.B. Jones (2017)

=Actor=

Fifth Column at the Funnel, directed by John Porter (1982)
Boy, Girl, directed by Bruce LaBruce (1987)
Bruce and Pepper Wayne Gacy's Home Movies, directed by Bruce LaBruce and Candy Parker (1988)
Like This, music video for Fifth Column, directed by Bruce LaBruce and Fifth Column (1990)
No Skin Off My Ass, directed by Bruce LaBruce (1991)
Donna, music video for Fifth Column, directed by Friday Myers (1994)
She's Real, directed by Lucy Thane (1997)
I Believe in the Good Of Life, music video for The Hidden Cameras, directed by Joel Gibb, (2005)
She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column, directed by Kevin Hegge, (2012)
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution, directed by Yony Leyser, (2017]

References

External links

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3DiLQeNe_cWczBxXuvxAlQ G. B. Jones] on YouTube
{{IMDb name|0428091}}
[http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/02/bunny-the-lakers.html Bunny & the Lakers] at WFMU (February 15, 2010)

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian contemporary artists

Category:Canadian experimental filmmakers

Category:Canadian women drummers

Category:Canadian women guitarists

Category:Canadian film actresses

Category:Canadian punk rock drummers

Category:Canadian punk rock guitarists

Category:Canadian women artists

Category:Canadian women film directors

Category:Canadian lesbian artists

Category:Canadian LGBTQ film directors